Scotland 2025: Edinburgh - Flight, Grassmarket, Apartment

The days leading up to our flight to Edinburgh to begin our 23-day visit to Scotland was filled with a bit of angst for my husband Rich and myself. About 2 weeks before our flight, there were reports of Storm Floris which brought unusually strong wind gusts of over 85 mph and heavy rainfall causing transportation delays and cancelations as well as closures of venues such as the Glasgow Cathedral.  Then with 10 days to go, we learned that the hike we planned to take in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh would need to be delayed or curtailed since a fire had spread in Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano in that area, closing off some of the paths leading to it.  And finally, mere days before we were to fly, we were bombarded with news from the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike which was affecting passengers booked with that airline.  Luckily, we had booked with West Jet, which flew out of Terminal 3 in Pearson Airport, away from the chaos that ensued in Terminal 1. 

Despite all these potential setbacks, we ended up with an issueless flight that started off with a breeze through a short Nexxus security line where we didn’t have to remove liquids or laptops.  This was followed by a visit to the Plaza Premium Lounge were we dined on meatballs with tomato sauce and rice, and stir-fried noodles with chicken before heading to our boarding gate.  We had pre-paid for aisle seats across from each other which made it easier to get up during the flight and to access our bags from the overhead bin at the end.  But it also meant less space under the seat in front of us to store personal items and for legroom.  At one point during our flight, the man in the centre seat next to Rich looked at me and started gesturing wildly.  I didn’t understand what he was trying to say until he pointed at my t-shirt then revealed the tattoo on his forearm.  I had forgotten that I was wearing my Rush T-shirt with the iconic Starman logo from the Canadian band’s album 2112.  The man had the same tattoo on his arm!  It’s funny that I get reactions to this t-shirt all over the world but the truth is that I bought it at a market sale because it was $5 and looked cool.  I am not actually familiar with any Rush music!  This has happened so often that I have decided I need to start listening to Rush music to justify wearing the shirt.

Our flight landed on schedule and we took the airport tram into central Edinburgh, getting off at Princes Street near The Mound.  This was about a 20-minute walk (approximately 1km) to our rental apartment on Grassmarket but it felt longer and farther because we were lugging our carry-on bags up and down steep inclines. Fortunately, it was a bright, sunny and pleasant day.  In fact, we were lucky throughout our 7-day stay in Edinburgh as we had sunshine with just a spitting of rain the entire time.  That luck would last through 4 days in Glasgow before running out on our 11-day drive through the east coast of the Scottish Highlands.

Grassmarket is a historic, cobblestoned street dating back to the 14th Century that was the location of the city’s oldest marketplaces and a site for public executions in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Today, Grassmarket is a lively street filled with pubs, restaurants and shops selling crafts, and unique gifts and is the location for live musical performances and festivals.  There are many interesting pubs on this street including Maggie Dickson’s at 92 Grassmarket, named after a woman who survived her execution by hanging in 1724, earning her the nickname “Half Hangit Maggie”.  Along a similar theme was The Last Drop, a 17th century pub whose name refers to the last drink given before a hanging.  The inn is decorated with dangling nooses, photos and inscriptions on the walls that refer to the area’s dark history.  We had a quick lunch there while waiting to be able to check into our apartment. In the centre of Grassmarket is a circular monument erected in 1937 marking the site where over 100 Covenanters were executed in the late 17th Century for their religious beliefs and refusals to pledge allegiance to the crown.  There were many other interesting shops and eateries on Grassmarket including Mary’s Milk Bar, an artisanal hand-crafted ice cream parlour that had lengthy lineups every day that wrapped around the store and up a flight of stairs.  We never got close enough to find out what all the fuss was about.

Because our plane landed at 10:05am and we arrived in the Old Town by noon, it was much too early for us to check into our rental apartment or even to drop off our bags.  We were hoping to spend the time before check-in to explore some of the area in the vicinity. Luckily, we were referred to Bounce Luggage Storage which has locations worldwide and especially in United States and United Kingdom.  We found a location just a half block away from the apartment inside the Kickass Café.  The location included a funky bar/café and hostel as well as a locked luggage storage area. It cost £13 to store two large bags and one smaller bag but the fee was worth it since it allowed us to start exploring Edinburgh without being laden by our luggage.  We had a pretty packed schedule for this leg of our trip so we needed every hour.  We downloaded the Bounce app, pre-booked and pre-paid for our storage time indicating number of bags and were able to drop them off.  The attendant that took our luggage did not give us a receipt so I took a photo of the number tags attached to our bags.  Good thing I did, since the next attendant who retrieved our bags asked to see a photo to prove which were our bags.  It all went smoothly and we will keep this service in mind for the future.

Through Booking.com we rented a self-contained apartment at 1 Grassmarket within a historic 4-storey stone tenement building constructed in 1875 complete with baronial turrets typical of late 19th century Scottish architecture.  Alas my dream of staying in a turret was not fulfilled with this rental as our unit did not include one.  It was quite the complicated task to get into our apartment which included getting a code to retrieve the keys out of the assigned lockbox, figuring out which of two identical looking keys would open the heavy, big black wood front door, entering a 6-character code to enter the next door, climb a flight of stairs (luckily we were only one floor up), using the second identical key to enter the next door, walk down a long corridor, open another door onto a long outdoor balcony before finally reaching our apartment and opening it with the final key.  This was such a journey that we were sent an instruction video which we watched multiple times before our arrival.  After a couple of days, it became rote but the first few times were daunting.  I eventually put a piece of painter’s tape on one of the identical keys so that they were easily distinguishable.

The apartment itself contained a bed and sofa, full kitchen including a washing machine and a bathroom with a shower and heated towel rack, which unfortunately did not work.  We appreciated being able to wash our clothes but had to hang-dry them for several day.  There was no cell service in the stone building but luckily the WIFI signal was strong and encrypted with a secure password.  Our only complaint was that we never got hot water out of the bathroom or kitchen sinks but luckily the shower did have hot water so we made do.

For all its little quirks, we could not have found a better location to stay in terms of price and accessibility to the attractions that we wished to visit, especially during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival when accommodations were difficult to come by and prices were jacked up.  We were within 10-25 minutes walk to National museums, castles and palaces, the Royal Mile, parks and kirkyards (cemeteries) and all the shows that we had selected for Fringe.  Grassmarket itself was bustling with bars and restaurants busy every day and night.  We had a perfect view of the Edinburgh Castle from the base of our apartment building and were even able to catch the tail end of the fireworks and drone show that marked the grand finale of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo show while standing across from our apartment.

A crafts and food market is held each Saturday on Grassmarket, offering artisan crafts, local products and street food.  We completed our Saturday itinerary in time to catch the tail end of the market and were able to pick up some items for dinner.  We had read about Lovely Paella and their offerings of seafood paella with jumbo prawns, mussels and squid, as well as chicken paella with green beans.  We bought one of each plus several sausage rolls to have for meals at “home” over the next few days.